Question

You do not want viewers of your datasheet to sort your data. What can you do to prevent this?

Answer 1

To prevent datasheet viewers from sorting data, you can protect the sheet or workbook in spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel with a password. This will disable the sorting functionality for anyone without the password. Additionally, converting the workbook to a non-editable PDF format is another way to secure the data.

Step-by-step explanation:

To prevent viewers of your datasheet from sorting your data, you can take a few steps depending on the software you’re using. In Microsoft Excel, for example, you can protect the sheet or workbook which disables the sorting functionality for users without the password.

Here are the steps you could follow:

1. Go to the 'Review' tab in Excel.
2. Click on 'Protect Sheet' or 'Protect Workbook'.
3. Enter a password that will be required to unprotect the sheet or workbook.
4. Ensure that the options for sorting and filtering are not selected.
5. Click 'OK' to activate the sheet protection.

When these steps are completed, users will not be able to sort or filter the data without the password. It's important to remember this password, as losing it could prevent even the owner from sorting or filtering the data in the future. As an additional measure, you could also save your workbook as a PDF, which preserves the data in a non-editable format, thus, also preventing sorting.